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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



WREATHS OF SONG 



A LYRICAL THOUGHT SEQUENCE 



Rev. T. J. O'MAHONY, D.D., D.C.L. 

All Hallows College, Dublin, Irelsnd 



3^^ 



THE 

^bbey Press 

PUBLISHERS 

114 

FIFTH AVENUE 

Condon NEW YORK IRotitrcal 



THE LIBRARY OF . 


CONGRESS, 1 


Two Copies 


deceived 


MAR 25 


1903 


Copyright 


tntry 


h/UlA., 1^S' 


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CLASS tC 


XKc. No. 


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t>uf 


COPY 


B. 



713^7 



Copyright, 190a, 

by 

THE 

Hbbcy press 






WREATHS OF SONG 



PRELIMINARY NOTICE. 



Under the general title of Wreaths of Song, the 
present volume contains the author's Thought Echoes, 
Wreaths or Song from Courses of Philosophy (Re- 
echoes, Symphonies, Harmonies), and Wreaths of Song 
from a Course of Divinity (Harmonics, Thought- 
terming, Allel). The whole thus represents an up-lc- 
date collection of the author's philosophical and theo- 
logical poems arranged and revised by himself. For 
sub-title it is called A Lyrical Thought Sequence, 
as that form of sequence is found not only between the 
pieces of each series but also between each of the seven 
series ©f the collection. 



CONTENTS. 



THOUGHT ECHOES. 

Proem 3 

Gnosis 6 

Noesis 9 

Neuma 10 

Noema 11 

Life 13 

Thought 15 

Love 16 

Love's Term 17 

Universe 18 

Union 19 

Self-Union 21 

Self-Reflection 22 

Self-Determination 23 

The Absolute 25 

Revelation 26 

Epodion 28 

RE-ECHOES. 

Prelude 31 

Physis 33 

Isis 3S 

Eleysis 37 

Processus 39 

Processio 4i 



vi Contents. 



PACB 



Progressus 

De Profundis 45 

In Altis 46 

Excelsior 48 

In Excelsis 51 

SYMPHONIES. 

Prelude 55 

Aura 57 

Hertha 58 

Cosmos 59 

Tir Na N-oge 60 

Coeli 61 

EHon 63 

Eloi 65 

Elohe 67 

Eloah 68 

HARMONIES. 

Prelude 71 

Spiritus 72 

Spirans 73 

Respirans 74 

Suspiria 75 

Aspirans '^'] 

Passing 78 

Away 79 

For Aye 82 

The Way 83 

The End 84 



Gmtents. vii 

HARMONICS. 



PAGE 



Prelude 89 

I Am 91 

Who Am 92 

He 93 

Who Is 95 

There 97 

THOUGHT-TER MING. 

Prelude loi 

Ex Celsis 103 

Benedictus 105 

Qui Venit 107 

Nomine Domini 109 

ALLEL. 

Prelude 113 

Paraclito 121 

Trisagion 123 

Sabaoth 125 

Allel Sabaoth 127 

Amen 131 

Conclusion 133 

Logia 134 

Apologia 136 

Envoi 137 

Appendix 141 



Cl)0H9Dt=€c!)0e$, 



FIRST SERIES. 



A ScU^ChduSbt Sequence. 



PROEM. 



Wha-T shall I read ? — I was tliinking, vvliile I 

looked from study chair 
Up at life's treasured tomes of truth, fondly 

feeling there 
In their words enshrmcd lay many a mind of 

the truest that ever were. 
Resting at last, thought self-stayed at the one 

I had long loved most. 
And laboured with, too, for all that I knew 

men said 'twas love's labour lost: 
As if could be lost love's labour for trutli, be 

what may th^ p^n or cost! 

3 



Wreaths of Song. 

Reflecting thus my spirit thrilled to the depths 
of its inmost sense 

With need till then unfelt of faith for reason's 
reverence. 

Then rose — ah, why try to explain? What 
more now may I know 

Than, as of over-consciousness, was mystical 
outflow 

My life from to that life- word of the Word's 
own scholar-saint. 

As there my spirit his would meet, but, yearn- 
ing so, waxed faint 

For sweetness of the yearning. When came 
like a living breath 

As effluence of spirit-life mine strengthening, 
and yet 

So sweetly soothing! — Earth's cares, e'en the 
old self-care, did die 

Within my soul, the while all that so faintly 
used feel "I" 

Alert, instinct with some new force as of a 
second youth, 

Felt living thought's true life, listening to liv- 
ing word of truth. 



Proem. 

That said, methought, not in the way of sound 

to hearing's sense, 
But as to spirit spirit speaks through pure 

intelHgence : — 
"'Tis time, turn in. Within thee seek the 

centre of thy soul. 
Self-silence there. Then shalt thou hear 

Mind's mystic echoes roll 
From out the everlasting hills, self-telling of 

the whole 
Of what should wills, as willing-well, e'er wish 

there ever may 
Be as it is, and reason tell there must self -be 

for aye. 
So shalt thou sing, and, though each song's 

wrought form of words be thine, 
Shalt for the universal need of head and heart 

in truth and deed 
Thought-echo the Divine!" 



Wreaths of Song. 



GNOSIS. 

I. 

I AM — I know — first knowing want, and there, 

all else before. 
Mean what it may, what shows to thought as 

want to want no more. 
No — not for naught makes Nature's want : 

good it tends to pursue. 
Still, thus I tend now not but to have, nor 

even but to do. 
Of far other tending the need tells, and higher 

and deeper. I see — 
In that I self-knowing thus want not to want, 

I want to be let he — 
For ever and ever ! Whatever I got or have 

been able to gain 
So as but to have or do aught if not for being 

e'er must be vain. 

11. 
Vain wert then, vision of Beauty and Truth 
and Goodness and Greatness all o'er me, 



Gnosis, 

But beckoning me up? — bright dream of my 

youth, there even now rising before me ! 
Wert thou also vain, manhood's last aim? — 

life-labour's substance and sum ! 
No, no — and 'twas always the same : I longed, 

as I long, to become. 
That longing I now know cannot be wrong, 

for I feel it my being's feel : 
What no world-fact or act of my own, but my 

Maker's in me doth reveal. 
The self-word of sense is this want to act forth 

what of worth is my life's potency, 
To grow what for aye I am made to become, 

to be what 'tis in me to be. 
And, being so, know that I am to be so wholly 

and eternally. 

III. 
Yearning heart, what wouldst thou more? 

Doth sense the right not say? 
Thou sighest so, I scarcely know whether for 

yea or nay 
Or only doubt. Still, sigh, my heart ! Why 

not? — but thus shalt tell 
The thought-term of thy nature's way, and 

that too must be well. 



"Wreaths of Song. 

Sigh on — yes, what if perfect self for aye I 

came to be? 
'Tvvould not suffice. Life's self-longing thought 

wholly turns from Me. 
No matter what self-sense may show as being 

to become, 
Not that may mean for what life cries while 

thus what does sighs : "Home !" 
Sense shows not all the right. Self is not 

made self-wise to move : 
Nay, at its best, it is thy slave, thy willing 

slave, sweet Love ! 

:!c * * -.K * 

Love, love for aye — for aye! Oh, hear that 

thought's re-echoing roll 
Adown thy being's deepest deeps — love, love 

for aye — my soul ! 
What may that be but truth to thee self -telling 

of the whole 
Of what of worth was, is, and — be what might 

made pass away — 
What should and shall be and be done and be 

self-known for aye. 



Noesis. 



NOESIS. 

What need one know more than that stirred 
His spirit's depths the Hving word 
Of truth self-told to know he should 
Self-utter as its spirit would 
To time of all it told have told? 
So hath it been well said of old : 
"The word conceived who shall withhold?" 
Birds self-sing at the call of Spring, 
Trees in the breeze self -sound : 
So truth-told thought self-words — and ought 
Though no listening souls be found. 
Be that with me as it may be, 
This only, friend, I ask of thee : 
Should ever song, verse, line or word 
Of mine to thy thought rest afford, 
Seek where with truth then in accord 
Our minds make harmony. 

First Term. 



9 



Wreaths of Song. 



NEUMA. 

The spirit's voice! What may that be 

But word of its source to mind, 
Self-voicing nature's sympathy, 

Truth's hving word of kind? 
Self lifting from self-sense's course 

Into life's sovereign sense, 
'Tis reason's fundamental force, 

The sense of the presence 
Of Other there whence comes love's call 

For one to speak or do 
What shall proclaim anew to all 

Where all are tending to. 



(0 



Noeixui* 



NOEMA. 

Tending always wholly to be 

One in act with self-source : 
That is the law of constancy 

For every living force. 

Now life here could but from above 

Have come, and only thence 
Through life's own sovereign act of love 

And for love's consequence. 

Yet Earth's self-word through aeons of strife- 
Mean what may the mystery — 

Proclaims want, woe and loss of life, 
Its way to what is to be. 

Love left here thinking well may sigh : 
Has some one not done wrong? 

Reason thereto may well reply 
Only by sighing on. 

n 



"Wfcaths cf Song. 

Sigh on, reason, sigh on — to truth 
Thy voice self-thought must move : 

Though first all sad to ear of youth 
Yearning for life and love. 



t2 



Life* 



LIFE. 

As yet, young life, hast lived to know 

But sweets of life's success. 
And now thy heart is all aglow 

With health and happiness. 

So wouldst day-dream. Well, which shall be 

First of time's coming woes? 
Is this self-forming agony 

Wherewith life's current flows? 

See through the blue yon darkening spot! 

Means that life's thunder cloud? 
Then may the hands the robes have wrought 

Prepare the funeral shroud. 

Or must ye first flow, bitter tears 
For love lost — hopes found vain? 

Then shall the end bring weary years 
Or weeks of racking pain ? 

13 



Wreaths of Song. 

And then — soul, think what there may be 

For horror, hate and fear! 
Yet, yet — now see goodness, beauty, 

And brightness shown thee here. 

Thine too is hght self-showing what 
Cannot but be: whence springs 

Love-truth's simpHcity in thought, 
Complexity in things. 

Thence, spirit that lovest, 'tis thine to know- 
Let sense of it leave thee never — 

Here lives may come and lives may go. 
What loves must live for ever : 

For ever and ever and ever — 

As long as love may be; 
And that is what may not be never, 

— What is essentially. 



J4 



Thoogfht. 



THOUGHT. 

Thought think not the thought-less above 

Only as power to self-move ; 

As power 'tis for aye to love. 

Motion all tends to cease to be : 
Thought makes for love's eternity. 

See how Earth's thought-less lives but cry 
For things here now. Thought-lives all sigh 
For there-for-ever : — such to die ! 

Thought's self cries unto all such : No ! 

To thoughtless death ye may not go. 

Made long to love for-aye, believe, 
Soul, thus art made for aye to live: 
So did'st love's deathless word receive. 

Therewith think — it is true love's 
thought — 

Shall I e'er live and yet love not? 



f5 



Wreaths of Song. 



LOVE. 

That whereby life with hfe e'er blends, 
Whereiinto truth through beauty tends, 
Why being blooms and blooming ends 
With doing all it could; 

Wanting that solely wants to see, 
Acting that wholly makes to be, 
Rest that is all complacency 
In another's good ; 

Thus what first moves to give not gain, 
Yea, though the gifts bring nature pain. 
And nature's self at last as fain 
To give itself doth move : 

That which the while wills feel they would 
Feel always, feeling so they should 
Always feel as all of above — 
That is love. 

16 



Love's Term. 

LOVE'S TERM. 

Shall ear, while hearing sea-shell sigh, 

Doubt if therein be air? 
Shall eye ask, seeing land-birds fly 

Southward, is land now there? 

Shall heart, listening to thought-life's cry 

For love-for-aye, not know 
Here self-acts that which may not die, 

There what attracts it so? 

So be it — a devotion, 

Word's way to spread abroad, 
To love's self-terming notion 

For thought of the living God. 

As forms opposed to His truth recede, 

Or forms in favour decay. 
Every age has its thought-need; 

And this is the need of to-day — 

Thought of Him not as but Who first did 
All of worth souls are seeing, 

But also as loving Life, here now hid, 
All moving as First Being. 

Second Term. 

17 



Wreaths of Song;. 
UNI-VERSE. 

The World — the Whole here, All I feel 

As whereof I am part — 
Supreme! I see it self-reveal 

All-other than Thou art. 

To conscience Judge, Teacher to thought, 

To will art Lord o'er all : 
While it — that thing! — mind, is it not 

Thine All-impersonal? 

Nay, why think thereof as a whole 

Subsisting to be said? 
"The World" is but thought-term of soul 

For all the beings made — 

For all of all done by Who is the One 
That cannot e'en be conceived 

Not being, and so, though last to know, 
Is first to be believed : 

To believe in and to adore 

As love's Self-sovereign One 

Who, as the First, always All-o'er, 
Perfects all union. 



Union. 



UNION. 

Being's first note is unity, 

Union its last and best : 
So what be-comes conies one to be. 

But union is its rest; 
All-rest as best for one as one, 

At once all-end and mean, 
What by each one is to be done 

As from the first hath been. 

True, what for one is to be done 

Is its perfection gained : 
But, what terms one's perfection 

Save its union attained? 
Its unity is for each one 

First force for its first act, 
Then must accomplished union 

Be one's full final fact. 

t9 



Wreaths of Songf. 

Sense-seeing shows but separate 

Forms scattered throughout space; 
Sense-hearing only can relate 

Succession's endless race; 
Then, while, time's way, mind ponders on 

All known to have been done, 
For self-thought's term first shows the One 

And then — love's Union. 



20 



Self-Union. 



SELF-UNION. 

Self-union — will's, love's law of laws! 

'Tis to act everywhere 
In union with the Will e'er was, 

The Will e'er must be there. 

Yet, as the real reacts the true, 

May each sense-acted one 
Make love's ideal subject to 

Some form of sense-passion. 

Hence slaves of lust or pride or pelf 
Die to sense of First Cause, 

As to that of determining-self 

'Neath Nature's determined laws. 

Self-acting soul, e'er further strive 
Than of sense to thee done : 

So shalt thy finite self keep alive 
To sense of the Infinite One. 

Third Term. 

21 



Wreaths of Song. 



SELF-REFLECTION. 

Look at that lakelet caught 

'Tween the rocks — how it mirrors the sky! 
Self-shown truth of love's thought, 

Dost mirror me thus the Most High? 

There over all glows the Real 

Here showing as bright abyss : 
Abysmal love-lit Ideal ! 

Art showing me thus there is — 

Who is as He ever and ever must be 

And ever and ever hath been? 
He — always He and only He — 

Love-light, what else canst mean? 

What else the spirit through poet's dreams 

That singeth and shall as long 
As youth may yearn and vision have gleams 

Of life fit theme for song? 

22 



Self-Detemiination* 



SELF-DETERMINATION. 

Be what may self-thought's highest height 
For what Life's term should be, 

Man's for himself is serving Right 
Freely and manfully. 

Why then self-thinking now ask: Where 

Should free self -agents bow? 
Is Who was ere was then or there 

Not acting here and now? 

And here and now self-acts not He 

As He hath ever done 
Who as First is eternally 

All-self-determined One? 

Nay, soul, through thine own doing known 
Own His forth-forming fact — 

Whose righteousness is first self-shown 
In every righteous act. 

23 



"Wreaths of Song* 

Nor may thy thinking avail more 
Than thought-wise to know here 

Whom faithful free-wills thus adore, 
Whom faith taught first to fear: 

To fear then love as the All-first 
Wholly in deed and truth, 

Self-term of universal trust 
As love's own Absolute. 



24 



The Absolute. 



THE ABSOLUTE. 

The Absolute, the Absolute ! 

So will o'er thought self-sings, 
Forth-terming unto termless truth 

Mind's mystic yearnings. 

Termless Life — Thought — Will that as now 

Wert ever and must be, 
We may not self-know what art Thou 

— Who art Eternity! 

Not e'en all known of Thee we may 

Think forth through self-thought's light, 

Nor with space-time words even say 
All we may think aright. 

At most now thought-wise may we know 

All told of Thee is true 
Which set forth through love's terms self-show 

What to be, bear, and do. 

25 



Wreaths of Soag. 



REVELATION. 

(St. John iv. 8.) 

"He who loves not knows not God, 

For God is Love" — most true! 
Yet may one love and Him know not 

The way that is His due 
Who, through love's act, should be self-shown 

As loving One above 
All others, even love's way known. 

As Being Who is Love. 

Love Self-subsisting! Who love do 

All truly to Thee tend. 
But they only own Thee who 

Live unto Thee as End : 
Ay, and who live so most must sigh, 

For, love's way, they best know 
How unlike all Thou art. Most High, 

Is all known here below. 

26 



Revelation. 

Sovereign Sense of all we trust, 
Believe or would have be ! 

1 see, in that Thou art the First, 

Who would be just to Thee 
Others must love and serve here, still 

Full often self-reprove 
In that first went not his whole will 

Forth to Thee, living Love ! 

Fourth Term. 



27 



"Wreaths of Song. 



EPODION. 

Who art — Whose word made mine echoing 

sing, 
Thy spirit send forth with that faint echoing, 
Self-singing within who shall list to my song 
Till will, thought, and feeling so to Thee be- 
long 
That, wholly unheeding what shows there of 

me, 
They hear self-revealing all there is of Thee, 
And thence, through believing love, sing a 

true part 
Of the song singing, living Love's self, that 
Thou art! 



28 



Re-ecftoes, 



2? 



SECOND SERIES. 



(Pbpsicac.) 
J\ Cime=CbouSbt Scqucnc:. 



PRELUDE. 

Again the vernal purple glow 

Upon the hills and gold 
On gorse and grass have come to show 
How sense-wise time's way man may know 

Love's truth through beauty told. 
Thought, wholly sense-informed be now 
Of what now is — spirit, be thou 
The spirit of the mountain's brow, 

The spirit of the Spring. 
Forth of self-thought — my muse, arise, 
See flowery fields and sunny skies 
And — hark, the birds ! Life in me sighs 

To hear thee also sing. 

3J 



Wreaths of Song. 

From day to night, from night to day. 

Hear Nature's universals play : 

Then answer Song's thought-terming way 

Reason's self-questioning. 
But sing in tune with what is played. 
And, be what may then by thee said, 
The world's word ever since 'twas made 

Shalt be re-echoing. 



32 



Physis* 



PHYSIS. 

Going, going on and on — 
Worked and working every one 
On this earth beneath that sun! 

What on earth is being done? 

Sun-born earth e'er burning 
For the hour of its returning! 
Shall we grant it — Truth, dost want it? 
Is earth going to the sun? 

No, not whereto this world must go 
Thought-life thereon first needs to know. 
But what it is thus labouring so 
For ever to have done. 

As trees are seen to put forth leaves, 
Thence flowers, whence fruit earth receives. 
Mind instinctively believes 

Earth's self bears final fruit: 

33 



Wi-eaths of Songf. 

For which it worked since it began, 
Which being done terms all it can. 
— And what may that be more that Man, 
Time's term of all its truth? 



34 



iSf& 



ISIS. 

On, on — universal sound 
As of voices all around 
Wording the world's order — on, on, on! 
Therewith, soul, feel 
Not self-acting alone. 
Now that has learned to own 
The Power o'er powers e'er acting here to up- 
hold, help and heal. 

Mark that music of the breeze. 
That harmony of the trees 
To Earth's primal melody — rippling laugh of 
mountain rill ! 
There, heart, thou hast thy choice. 
Nature's universal voice 
Self-wording love's truth. Therewith recre- 
ate thy weary will. 

35 



Wfcatb* of Song. 

Watch the sport of those young birds 
Through that close of golden furze, 
Hear those singing to their chosen May's bridal 
bowers among, 
While far away on high 
O'er all soaring to the sky 
Yon lark as of love's ecstacy self-sings life's 
mystic song. 



36 



Eleysis. 



ELEYSIS. 

Out gushing, forth flowing; 

See how things strive! 
Down rushing, on going : 

Do they arrive? 
The rills reach the river. 
That the ocean, all-giver: 
So do all self-deliver 

Where all self-derive? 

Watch those waves breaking 

Along the lagoon : 
Were they not making 

There all for the moon? 
Yet there are all broken! 
Now, which is the token 
W^ord of the unspoken 

Truth to be known soon? 

37 



Wreaths of Song. 

Things somewhat seems driving 
On further, more high, 
To Hve and keep striving — 

All only to die! 
Why mind what's to come of 
What I thus see but some of. 
Not what's to become of 

All come to be "I" ? 



38 



processus. 



PROCESSUS. 

"On and on for ever" — 
On, on — flowing river, 
Flowing, flowing — on, sing on, 
Self-teach me time-truth's life-lesson. 

Self-determining time-termed soul, 
Th};^ place keep in thy course's whole; 
But there shalt find thy being's force, 
The forward impulse of thy source. 

Therewith going, still shalt rest; 
Though last-least act as first and best; 
Shalt share the fulness of thy past 
And reach thy life's true end at last. 

Mind ! passion's breeze of lust or pelf 
May seize then leave thee to thyself: 
Left to thyself, pray what wert thou — 
Puffed up part-thing of here and now? 

39 



Wreaths of Songf. 

What art thou when not with thine own? 
As froth-fleck — that there just upthrown, 
Shrivelhng away on that sun-dried stone : 
See it — self-lessening — going, gone! 



40 



Processio. 



PROCESSIO. 

I. 

Well the Sage said — 
Naught the First made 

Is ever to be 
Annihilated 

Absohitely. 
So creatures remain 

All as made be, 
Or go back again 

To their prime potency. 
Thus lives from the first 

That for self-act exist 
As acting-selves must 

For ever subsist : 
All others become, 

As of matter made-be, 
Lapse back to the sum 

Of that made-potency. 

4J 



Wreaths of Songf. 

II. 

Thou, soul, as self-seeing. 

Seest art not thus done, 
Art no matter-made thing, 

No earth-evolved one ; 
Art being from Self-being, 

So art bound to live on : 
As from the First come, 

Thereto art to go 
For thy self-formed doom 

Of weal or of woe, 
To rest in love's home 

Or love no more to know. 

III. 

Then thy question is not — 

To he or not he: 
It is — what of thy lot 

Through eternity f 
To thee own that unknown, 

But hold fast to this : 
Thou art one for the One 

Wherewith union is bliss; 

42 



Processio. 

The One love as love's Own 
Makes known to thee is. 

For, as truth of all song, 
There is — love to life sings- 

For what natures all long 
In the nature of things! 



43 



Wreaths of Songf. 



PROGRESSUS. 

Could not He whose it is to create, 
To make be from being nought, 

All made, should He will it, annihilate? 
Yes, but He could will it not. 

Wholly too good, too wise and too just 
For that, saith the Sage, is He : 

So is He too true to act as the First 
Against what is naturally. 

What, though the nature of each-made-thing 

As being is its Maker's fact? 
To act against that, as it is being, 

Were acting against His act. 

But act of His for all that is 

As it is is reason sufficient : 
For reason must be supremely His 

Who is the First Efficient, 

44 



Dc Pfofwndis, 



DE PROFUNDIS. 

Higher and higher — wild bird, thought I — 

Would as thou now dost I could fly 

Free of thought singing through summer sky. 

As though in aught person were less than 
thing, 

Than flight through earth's air the soul's soar- 
in''' 

Thought's self-word than wild bird's wing ! 

For thought is not thine, bird, thou art to be 
Again all of earth-life's potency : 
While life for aye love claims for me. 



45 



"Wreaths of Song. 



IN ALTIS. 

Light and shade and shadow's changes, 

Mystic modes of here and now 
Passing o'er yon mountain ranges, 

Mine I feel and wonder how : 
How your gladness — mountain glory ! 

How your sadness — mountain gloom! 
'Tis that here now my life's story 

Spells time's universal doom. 

Yet, my life's mode is reflection 

When this truth of time is said; 
Mine self-form of resurrection 

Formed of forms of the dead; 
Mine thought's height for fancy's flight 

Here surpassing sight : not vain 
Then my spirit's claim of right 

To life, light and love again. 

46 



In Altis. 

Again, again — why, until then 

Thus to thought's Term but sigh? 

Here now may reason heavenward rise. 
Sursum ! my muse, shalt try — 

Like soaring lark through sunny skies, 

Self-freed of earth's ways — pure-thought wise 
Sing forth of the Most High 
As He is in excelsis \ 



47 



Wreaths of Songf* 



EXCELSIOR. 

SuRSUM ! from all felt, seen, or heard 

Through time's mystic accords : 
Ascending thought's guide thought-truth's 
word — 

Unto the Lord of lords ! 

"Scholastic!" they cry — well, why care 
For sense-thought scientists' taunt? 

Sursum ! my soul, cast from me their 
Anthropomorphic cant. 

Sense-swamped souls ! let them shout at thee 

Out of their dark abyss — 
Pure thought's way word forth all dost see : 

So shalt word but what is. 

"How worlds there roll" — there let them roll : 

Why for their way so care? 
Inform thee of the word of the Whole 

Forth-forming everywhere. 

48 



Excelsior. 

"One everywhere all-o'er" — on, on! 

Heed not sense-science's cry : 
Borne along on the wings of song — 

On, on to thought's Most High! 

"Higher than eye may see" — more, dare 

Self-free of all forms of sense; 
Not such self-shows thought's Truth up there 

Not such now calls thee hence. 

"Spirit that spirit calls there must be" — 

Right : then, recognising 
All such as thou all-other than He, 

Rejecting all keep rising. 

"All-other than we must He be" — ^sing 

How other than such as we. 
In that He wholly made being 

All ever there came to be. 

"All space beyond, beyond time's All, 

Eternal" — on! still learn 
How, e'en though thou wert eternal, 

Shouldst bow to One Eterne. 

49 



"Wreaths of Son§f. 

"Eternally there such as I 

Should worship One Supernal" — 

Why? How could one e'er be more high 
Than other One-eternal? 

''Eternal might be what ne'er may, 
Willed-world as world's decree" — 

Then Higher were than world thus from aye, 
The Will that making-be. 

"Will all-above e'er-making-be 
Were Love" — there, that is He, 
Who is Who is essentially — 
Excelsior excelsis! 



50 



In Excelsis, 



IN EXCELSIS. 

(Apoc. a-xt.) 

"The First and the Last." — 
Time-thought's self-term — thoughts-terming 
Thought ! 

Things — men — deeds disappear 
From troubhng consciousness, nor aught 
Of speech-made mist shows when above 
Mind's strife of words, Thou, Truth of love, 

Self-smilest away fear. 

Who art Love's Self! shall the day come 

When wholly one with Thee 
Father and mother, friends and home, 
All self-thought treasured so before 
Shall be? and — O the boundless more 
Thou art to be to me ! 



5J 



SpmpDonies. 



^ 



THIRD SERIES. 



SpntpDotiies. 

(inetapbpsicae.) 
n $pace=CI)ougi)t Sequence. 



PRELUDE. 

Oh, the spirit of the hills ! 

How it lifts thought hence, then fills 
Soul's depths with sense of Highest there for 
faith, hope, love and awe : 

Into life as life's light stealing, 

Right's mystery self-revealing. 
Eternal law of love — love of liberty and law ! 



Wreaths of Song. 



Is it through sight of what was seen 

So long before me, what has been 
Just as it is for ages and for ages so shall be ; 

Becoming not, in naught undone; 

Space-time's way telling of the One 
Who as He e'er was wholly is — the same 
eternally ? 

Is it through sense of end attained, 

Of summit reached, of having gained 
Rest after free self-labour, life's delight of 
prize well won? 

Is it the truth of thoughtless things 

Here all so satisfied? — That brings 
Repose to thought-tired soul as naught man 
ever said or sung. 

But is that the explanation 

Of this mystical elation, 

Triumph, joy, thanks, adoration, 

All that rushes on 

My soul among 

These peaks and seeks 

Thus utterance in song? 



^ 



Aura* 



AURA.* 

Space's sense-term ! Ah, it is cold 

As gleams from face of night, 
From the abyss that seems to hold 
Those far-off, fixed, unchanging, old 

Self-forms of twinkling light. 

Sense-sight's extreme art, starry night; 

As thine, mind, thought's self-seen; 
Flowers, fields, trees, earth's warm sunlight, 
Spirit of depth and mountain height — 

Word me the truth between 
For thought of love's living All-mean 
Here and in excelsis ! 



♦ Conf. Cbald. Aur, Heb. Aor, Irish, A^r. 

57 



Wreaths of Song-. 



HERTHA. 

Hertha — thou here now — Mother Earth, 

This hfe's mystic All-other ! 
Sense-self says how hast given ns birth. 

How truly thou art Mother. 

Flesh, blood and bone of me are thine ; 

Thy valleys, hills and woods, 
Streams, lakes, seas and sweet breath are mine; 

And mine thy many moods. 

Not mine thy word then to despise 
Here now through spirit's pride, 

Nor mine to fear to energize 
The way that word would guide. 

Whose love made leaves me in thy arms 

His will here still to do, 
So will I, spite of Time's alarms, 

Thy word's way trust me to — 
As to His in excelsis. 

58 



Gjsmos. 



COSMOS. 

Ills World — His word-willed — glorious All ! 

Deed self-done of the Lord: 
His whole world there — how can I call 

That less than His willed- word? 

Well may that All be all it should 
Whose ways are the First's laws, 

All-ordered one and true and good 
As caused of the First Cause. 

"Cosmos" in truth as caused by Love, 

That world must wholly laud 
As the All-good the All-above, 

So tell the glory of God. 

But what they are things thus self -show, 

Then, mind, 'tis thine to say : 
How glorious must be Who we know 

Hath made be such as they 
And all there — in excelsis! 

59 



Wreaths of Song*. 



TIR NA N-OGE. 

Starry World of worlds of light! 
What are they all but of the night 
By unseen Power points made bright? 
What round them shows ? What is behind ? 
What above them, mind, shalt find 
For thought's truth, as for sense-sight 
But the dark? — What means the dark? 
May not that to sense now mark 
Space's term of sight, the Mean 
Whence the Light of lights were seen? 
May there then not be but one 
Wholly universal Sun — 
Light of the Empyrean Dome, 
Changeless glory of man's home 
For life's nightless day to come? 
Stay thee there, sense-thought tired soul ! 
— Knowest of a living sun? 
Knowest a self-acting whole 
And Whose will is being done 
From life through light to union 
Therein as in excelsis? 

60 



Coelf* 



COELI. 

"The heavens are telling" — all day long these 

skies 
That glory told, yet did the light in my eyes 
Proclaim there all o'er me but Dome of dark 

blue 
Lit up by Earth's day-star: the while I well 

knew 
Was there self-revealing that world-wide view ! 
Why felt I not then what now makes my life 

sigh 
For sight of Light's living Self, for the Most 

High? 

Gloria in excelsis! 

Were sense-sight once freed from those fumes 

of Earth's fire, 
Did this life's lurid light from my vision retire 
Yet leave me here seeing, with these very eyes 
Up-looking as now at yon star-spangled skies, 

6i 



Wreaths of Songf. 

Would all that not show as some sapphire- 
gemmed screen 

With the light my life seeks the gems glow- 
ing between — 

Then should I be seeing hence all to be seen ? 
Gloria in excelsis! 



Glory of glories, sense-manifestation 

Of the Creator's act in His Creation ! 

'Twere light to the eye, music's self to the 
ear, 

Self-perfume, self-sweetness, each sense's most 
dear. 

Then were sense self-fulfilled of its life's des- 
tiny. 

Still the more would love's spirit cry : My 
end is He 

Whereof all that at best but tells the glory, 
Gloria in excelsis Deo — 'Elion ! 



62 



Elion. 



ELION. 

Sing out, heart, what art thinking, 
Self-whispering mystic words 

While gladdened life keeps drinking 
Light, perfume, song of birds. 

She loved them, Oh ! she loved them- 

"His faithful little birds, 
While we so much above them" — 

Oh, my mother's words ! 

Thus at life's best and brightest 

They well up in my soul 
For heart-hymns to the Highest, 

For true thoughts of the Whole. 

What were they — say, ye sages — 
Man's own, or such as must 

Re-echo down the ages 
As self-taught of the First? 

63 



Wreaths of Songf, 

Be what they may as terms of thought, 
Love's way they word the One 

Who as First wills e'er all that ought 
Here everywhere be done — 
El' Elion! 



64 



Eloi. 



ELOL 

"Eloi, Eloi" — wail of the night, 

What space through time self-siiigs — 
''Here first the First, the Light, made Hght 

Dark came of made-beings!" 
Yet, may not Hfe's self-acting parts 

Ope to the Light all o'er? 
Ay, and, alas! here self-closed hearts 

Keep dark for evermore. 

Still, as love must be, must be light; 

So is essential Day : 
But there is no essential Night, 

Nor may dark be from aye ; 
Nor may from aye be aught of sin. 

Death, pain, shame, hate, or strife : 
Nay, naught can there from aye have been 

But love's own lig^ht and life. 

65 



Wreaths of Song. 

Hence be the First known as Life-source 

Whence all of worth first came ; 
Then as Light's own forth- forming Force 

Whose is the Verb for name ; 
Then Love made-lives all-over, 

Before, beyond, behind — 
What more wouldst thou discover? 

Adore thy Sovereign, mind : 
Eloi— El'oi ! 



66 



Elohe. 



ELOHE. 

As the One all-uncaused adore, 

Space-thought's Self-term of seeing: 

More beings own, but never more 
Of worth to know as Being. 

So serve Him not but as Who doth give 

Being's first gift to be 
Or even as living e'er loving to live, 

But as of Himself is He — 

The First and, as First, the Truest and Best, 
Be ever what others there may; 

Whom but to serve were rapture and rest, 
Right act and reward for aye — 
El'ohe! 



67 



Wreaths of Songf. 



ELOAH. 

(Genesis xv. 1.) 

"Thy reward exceeding great — " 
Yes, good is the term-thought of childhood, 

As beauty is that of youth, 
While for sense-sated men-cheated manhood 

Thought's term of terms is ti'utli: 
But Truth and Beauty and Sovereign Good 

As First is the Absokite. 
This they only feel who feeling life's thirst 

For what is best, highest and most, 
Have thought till they see such must be that 
First 

To lose Whom were to be lost. 



69 



l^armonies. 



69 



FOURTH SERIES. 



l)ariitonie$. 

(€tl)icac.) 
J\ Cosmic=CI)ougl)t Sequence. 



PRELUDE. 

Voice of the day in the night, 
Word through the dark of the light, 
Sound down the depths from the height- 

Self-word of sky to sea! 
What is it, oh, what is it, 
That utterance of the spirit 
Of the secret of all in it — 

The World's word-mystery? 
In and out, come and go. 
Rise and fall and ebb and flow 
Here and there and to and fro — 

All rhythmic harmony! 

71 



"Wreaths of Songf. 



SPIRITUS. 

All-word of being about me — breath — breeze 
Of the sea, of the sky, of the hills, streams, 

trees — 
Spirit-word of this world, wert only of these? 
Earth's spirit — what is it but breath of a day 
That is dying: of being that yearning to stay 
Here sighs as self- feeling all passing away? 
Thought's spirit — my spirit, life's seolian lyre, 
Truth-attuned are thy chords. There — let it 



mspnx 



Let it breathe its own word-way of faith, hope, 

desire — 
All-o'er thee, all through — do but not interfere : 
Shalt tell forth the truth of all to be done here. 



72 



Spirans* 



SPIRANS. 

How do I know — what now raised my hair, 
Touched my brow? What I hear blow! 

Ay, and that they would say is the Air; 
But — how do I know? 

How do I know what is what they call Air; 

Whence, how or why it moves so 
And sighs as it passes me by as though there 

Were One I ought know? 

I know this all-sense but as word to my soul 

Of all to love means Long Ago, 
Here making me think of Always and the 
Whole 

And — how do I know? 



73 



"Wreaths of Songf. 



RESPIRANS. 

Breathing — as of a mother's breast, 
Methinks, hfe thus draws utterest 

Fulness of force, of food 
For here and now from what is there 
Always the same and everywhere 

Self-forming for my good. 

What art thou, Presence that I feel 
Thus at Time's brightest self-reveal? 

Highest here oft dost seem, 
And mayest in some sense be so : 
But, gentle Presence, well I know 

Thou art not the Supreme. 



74 



Susptria. 



SUSPIRIA. 

Be that thou mayest here, fair Creature 

Men name Nature, 'tis well for thee, 
Again comes spring re-forming each feature, 

But, oh, there comes no spring for me. 
For thee as for me there is no remaining, 

Yet what thou wert thou art again, 
While I — ah, how can I help complaining, 

Though I know the plaint all vain ? 

No, reason, no, 'tis no use replying — 

"Life lost is the cost of life grown more." 
I do, I do, there is no denying, 

Long to be what I was before : 
Again her child in the arms of mother, 

His little son on father's knee. 
Again a boy playing with my brother. 

Again, again — ah me, ah me ! 

75 



"Wreaths of Song, 

Sense-dulled soul, cease thy repining. 

Rouse thee, spirit, look up, see, 
There is the Real-Ideal shining: 

That Was— That Is— That Is to be ! 
Therewith thou art, child, with thy mother, 

His little son on father's knee; 
Still a boy playing with thy brother : 
Art One with One who is what no other 

Was or could ever be to thee. 



76 



Aspirans. 



ASPIRANS. 

I WOKE once more to sorrow's strain; 
To the yearning, worse than pain. 

For what had ceased to be. 
Faith whispered : Ye shall meet some day. 
Then reason: Yet they never may 

Be what they were to thee. 

Vain stress of soul — sense cried — as vain 
To court unconsciousness again : 

Come, up and out! we may 
Yet realize life's old delight 
Before the death-throes of the night, 

The dawning of the day. 

I rose. All round me sighed : 'Tis night ! 
Then, as through wrong comes sense of right, 

Truth's thought came: Day is there, 
Look to where ought self-show the bright! 
I looked and saw the new day's light 

Purpling the eastern air. 

77 



Wreaths of Song. 



PASSING. 



Down, down sinks the sun : my soul 
Again knows the woe of the fear 

Of its share in the way of the whole 
Self-known of it now and here. 



Abyss calleth unto abyss 

While sense-soothing torrents pour in : 
Woe, woe ! as this and as this 

E'er passeth what thus did begin. 

Thus it is ever and never but when 

Here being shows at its best : 
Self-sickens life thinking of "never again' 

And then can but cry for rest — 

For rest from this constant come and go, 

Loving and loved for a day, 
Being and doing well only to know 

The sorrow of passing away. 



Away, 



AWAY. 



Away! word of the river flowing, 

Flowing, flowing away — 
Away! word of tlie green grass growing 

To winter's withered hay — 
Away ! word of the blossoms blowing-. 
Blowing, blowing — like yon glowing 

Hues of dying day; 
To the eye while brighter showing, 
On the heart death's shadow throwing, 

Self-telling of decay: 
Here everything sighs — going. 

Going, going away — 
Away, away! 
Ay, beating heart, beyond our knowing. 

We too are going away. 

79 



Wreaths of Song. 

11. 

Away, away! The world wide, 

Look where'er we may. 
What whereof love is satisfied 

E'en promises to stay? 
There beauty's bloom, there manhood's pride 
See fading by life's flowing tide — 

All, all as here to-day! 
Soul, while loved lives thus past thee glide, 
While love's self withers by thy side, 

Time's truth re-echoing say, 
As saints and sages e'er have cried : 

Here all is going away — 
Away, away! 
As life's first loved when dearest died. 

All, all is going away. 



III. 

Here, after all, sure life is flowing 

On its appointed way : 
Things duties of their God's endowing 

But do as they decay. 

80 



Away. 

My God ! me, too, keep to Thy showing- ; 
The longer I Hve riper growing 

Unto Thy mowing day; 
With business of Thy bestowing 
Busy as summer blossoms blowing ; 

Hearing Thy voice e'er say 
Within my breast : No rest, no rest — 

Work while going away, 
Away for aye! 
Then let me rest, Eternal Best, 

With Thee when gone away. 



Si 



Wreaths of Songf. 



FOR AYE. 

Stars — silent sentinels e'er staying 

At heaven's gates, I mind the saying 

Your light words for time's hope and praying. 

"Patience" — that constant light doth say — 
"He wills well who wills every way 
All willed from and all willed for aye." 

Space-time's informed soul, self-attune 

To that truth's universal rune : 

That world-word of this night of June. 

To manhood's term — on, forth of youth, 
As life from leaf through flower to fruit, 
All unto good through beauty's truth! 

So shall thy course be in accord 
With Nature's universal word 
Only of souls self-silenced heard 
As for all and lor aye. 

82 



The Way. 



THE WAY. 

How should here way for all show right, 
Save seen as line of living light 

Left in the wake of love, 
Self-showing where His will's way is 
Whose will alone may, known as His, 

Forth wholly of self move? 

Yet hold not right the good 
But of one's own — of family, 
Of kindred or of dear country 

Or racial brotherhood. 

No matter how men call 
Their fond part-aims, wrong were to tend 
Life's whole way here save unto end 

Willed as the weal of all. 



83 



Wreaths of Song;. 



THE END. 

(.St. John xvii. SS.) 

"That all may be one" — 
Communion, communion ! 

There, Nature, I found 
All thy symbols self-teach. 

On! round me, all round 
Be it symbolled of each 

Sweet scent, sight, and sound. 
Life's glory keep showing. 

Light's beauty, love's power 
From morn's first glowing 

To day's dying hour. 
Then my spirit shall hear 

Through the gloaming the word 
Tongue of Flesh to Earth's ear 

May not tell of my Lord. 
Then its truth shall tell 

Starry songs sparkling all-o'er me, 
Betimes as well 

Mystical moonlight before me: 

S4 



The End. 

Tell of all in act one 

With the One that is He 
Whose will to be done 

Means all is to be. 
O, summit of seeing! 

Self-acting to see 
Self in act with Self-being 

As self -act the free — 
'Tis life's last revealing, 
'Tis reason's full meaning 

For love's mystery. 



S5 



l)arnioiiic$. 



87 



FIFTH SERIES. 



l)drtnonic$* 

Ci)OUSI)t's SelfSequcnce. 



PRELUDE. 

O'er self-thought's terms, harmonic-wise, 

Reverberating truth 
As thought's self to self-thought replies 

Naming the Absolute. 

His word's way thus, faith-informed thought, 
May song of His name be thine ; 

For it, from words the ages have wrought 
The choicest to choose be mine. 

89 



Wreaths of Songf* 

P'ull oft an old word thought-out will afford 
More truth than the reading of pages ; 

For, what is man's treasured thought-terming 
word 
But the crystallized wisdom of ages ? 

Long silent hath lain in thee lore of the past 
Thus worded the way its first speech is ; 

Now, knowing there wisdom's own teaching 
thou hast 
Self-sing thee each lesson it teaches. 

But let it well-up through life's blood-beat 
To reason's rhythm and rhyme. 

So measure and weight of things repeat 
In terms of space and time — 

Terms whose harmonics tell the truth 

That is the mystery 
Of all man of the Absolute 

May know and do and be! 



90 



**l Am/^ 



"I AM." 

(Genesis xvii. A.) 

Absolute self-truth of being! 

That alone mind brings 
Harmony of thought agreeing 

To melody of things. 

Things need not, but being must be: 
Lo, fact's first abstract truth! 

For that there need be One only, 
Only the Absolute : 

As Absolute in act, The Right; 

All-knowing as Self-known; 
Self-known as Self-subsisting Might: 

Love's own essential One. 

There must be One that there must be- 
Oh, how that truth self-sings! 

One is Who is essentially : 
The Creator of things. 

9r 



Wreaths of Songf. 



"WHO AM." 

(Exod. iii. \U.) 

Who art Who art — Essential Now! 

As Being's self — Self-being, Thou 

Art Being-wholly — Purest Act, 

Nor made be nor of any fact 

Made move or self-act, but art Cause 

Whence all else possible e'er was : 

So art the One there that cannot 

Be thought away — Subsisting Thought! 

Whose way is life, Whose word is truth, 

Whose act-term Love : Sole Absolute 

Source, Centre, Term of act and rest — 

Unutterable Utterest ! 
All words of worth word thoughts of Thee 

Who art All is essentially! 



n 



He. 



HE. 

"He is He and only He 

Who is All-is-essentially" — 

So — silence, self-word of all ought 

Be as it is, mother of thought 

And hope and love and awe's all-sense, 

Soul-song compelling — sweet silence! 

Sounds passing tell of past and part : 

Word of the whole, word of the heart. 

Word of the One always thou art — 

Word of the way extremes between, 

Word of the truth — word of the mean ! 

As yon deep blue is to sense-sight 

Space-wording universal Light, 

Silence, dost say: Eternal Right 

Rules through the years, all day and night. 

93 



Wfcaths of Songf. 

Sounds but as time's clouds come and go ; 
Thou, silence, to souls that self-know 
Art as thought's truth is, as night's sky 
Self-telling of Day may not die, 
Self-antiphon to the Most High 
Who is the Will there that is He 

Who wills all well is essentially. 



94 



Who Is. 



WHO IS. 

All-sparkling face of midnight sky, 

Like sea 'neath morning sun, 
Art bright now to my spirit's eye 

But with the light of One. 

Sing, starry sky; sing, starlit sea; 

Sing, love-light in my breast — 
O infinite self-mystery, 

Eternal life — light — rest ! 

Glory of Earth — of land, sea, sky: 
Morning, noon, starry night! 

Dost show forth truth of the Most High : 
Not as self-shows love's light. 

No, space-time moods of calms and storms, 

I marvel not the less 
For knowing ye thus less than forms 

Of mine own consciousness. 

95 



Wreaths of Song* 

Sense shows Ye, consciousness shows Me, 
Conscience knows of One more — 

More than man as here now may see, 
But e'er must bow before. 



96 



Ther«* 



THERE. 

There — earth, sun, moon, each planet, each 

star! 
What are ye but things made-be as ye are? 
Beings kept being, ye need ne'er be : 
My being seeks Being-essentially. 
Things — tell me not of their totality : 
All things there — were ye utterly gone, 
Still being I see should be the One 
Who is "He Who Is"— Oh, I hear, starry All, 
From thee unto me as 'twere deep to deep call : 

Infinite, Infinite — He is He 

Who made us be! 

AU HnlloTXjmas. 



97 



CftougfttCermlfis. 



99 

L.ofC. 



SIXTH SERIES. 



CftougMCerming. 



PRELUDE. 

"He made us be, 
Not ourselves we" — 
Yes, stars, that is time's melody, 
So sing ye ever as ye shine : 
The Might that made us was Divine! 
But, soul, be thine the harmony 
Of circling space — He makes us be 
And rightly act and truly see, 
WHO IS in excelsis : 
Hosanna, Hosanna, 
Hosanna in excelsis! 



Wreaths of Songf. 

Sing, proclaiming everywhere 
The First's self self-revealing there 
As the All-Mighty making be 
The World — the Whole in part we see 
As all that here whereof are we 
And all there is which is not He — 
WHO IS in excelsis : 
Hosanna, Hosanna, 
Hosanna in excelsis ! 

Hosanna to the Living One 
Whereto alone may naught be done, 
Who as First Self must e'er Self-be : 
As Life living-essentially, 
As Truth that ne'er in aught became, 
As Good eternally the Same — 
WHO IS in excelsis: 
Hosanna, Hosanna, 
Hosanna in excelsis ! 



I 



m 



Ex Celsis. 



EX CELSIS. 

Moonlight on the ocean ! 

Muse, say what may mean 
This sweet sad emotion : 

Marks mind more than there seen? 
Is it knowing old and drear 

What shows so fresh and fair? 
Is it knowing, though not here, 

Self -brightness shows somewhere? 

Somewhere must be the sight 

Of the glory and the power — 
Of the spirit of delight 

Thought thrills through this sweet hour. 
'Tis day to day revealing 

The light to light within 
— Ah, cloud all-concealing, 

Sense of all-darkening sin ! 

^03 



Wreaths of Song. 

'Tis night to night appeaUng 

For sense of love's Unseen, 
What shows to what knows for feehng 

Unto what ought have been. 
Heart, heart, rest in the thought 

Of Earth's all-saving One, 
Of all through His life here \vas wrought 

And all by His death done : 

Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison! 



104 



Benedictus. 



BENEDICTUS. 

Be whence they may — those forms that fade, 

Sense-clothing such as thou — 
Soul, own thy Maker the Unmade, 

As Thereof made-think now. 

Thence thinking forth to love's known whole, 

Its truth thus self-rehearse : 
My brother is each thinking soul 

My home the Universe. 

Feel first for those here owned of thee : 

Think of the woes of all, 
Think of the throes of agony 

Through yonder hospital. 

Think of the want, pain, grief and care 

Unknown of such as thou : 
Think — dear God — to think that there 

Are men man-slaying now! 

JOS 



"Wreaths of Song. 

Man, the race, the people — Lord! 

What shall their woes assuage? 
"The people" — hear that echoing word 

All down the coming age. 

But banded men — they say — may brave 

A man of might. But then, 
Who shall poor man — who mankind save 

From might of banded men? 

Who spite of combinations 

'Gainst justice, honor, truth, 
Shall right the wrongs of nations? 

— Who but Love Absolute? 

And what thereof : work, word or way 

Man felt or heard or saw? 
What but the might — self-right for aye — 

Of Love-Incarnate's Law? 



106 



Qui Venit. 



QUI VENIT. 

iSt. John i. 11.) 

"He came unto His own 

And His own received him not" — 
Yes, even of the known as true 

Men own but what they will. 
Then may they who so choose to do, 
Its saving mean sund'ring in two. 

Life's self corrupt until. 
Reason's self-unity all gone, 
Truth there shall find no living one 

With love's all-word to fill. 

Then energize life's parts apart, 

Each 'gainst each and the whole, 
While here proud head and there vain heart 
From love's last lingering conscience-smart 

Distract the corrupt soul: 

Compelling it to hear 
But passion's sighs or cries of strife. 
Lust of the flesh or pride of life, 

The hunger-hate or fear. 

J07 



Wreaths of Song;. 

Soon must such soul death's dark way Hve, 

Then dread the hving Light; 
Then, what thereof it ought receive 
Well knowing, try not to believe. 
Striving 'gainst reason's right : 
For when naught shows to be adored, 
When life no longer knows love's word, 
'Tis hopeless horror's night. 



JOS 



Nomine Domini. 



NOMINE DOMINI. 

Life o'er my life! what here now feels, 

Thinks, wills, self-knows as "I" 
Ever for Thee there self-appeals 
As Power that lifts, helps and heals, 

All Holy and Most High. 
Thanks that self-knowing thus I sigh 

To Thee as still for me — 
Ah me! this living force made "I" 
E'er makes for self. Lord, let it die 

To such part-life — naught be 
Thus to self more nor aught believe 
Worth living for than to receive 
That whereby it may truly live 

Thy law through unto Thee. 

Christmas Term. 



J 09 



nm. 



tu 



SEVENTH SERIES. 



PRELUDE. 

{Ps. cxxxiv.) 

"Sing to His name for it is sweet" — 

Ay, it were just and meet: 
Sweet is His name to heart and soul, 

Most sweet to weary mind 
Or as Creator of the Whole 

Or Saviour of mankind, 
But, oh, to think, to feel that He 
Is as he here now deigns to be 
The Way— the Truth— the Life ! What word 
Of Earth through sense-life's listening heard 

JJ3 



"Wreaths of Song. 

May suit that thought? No word of thine, 
Nature, may be thus meetly mine : 

Nought I may comprehend. 
Lord, hymn through me Thyself to Thee 
Who art my Source and End 

And Mean as well : Immanu'el — 
Allelu'ia! 



m 



Prelude. 



MATINS. 

Ope, gates of praise — forth, holy morn! 
Lo, Hght shown as of Light's self born: 
Rosy, tender, love-light — see 
The Mystery's self-mystery — 
Forth-forming First! Naught may mean 
Aught thus sense-wise felt or seen 
As true or pure or bright 
But that from the First hath been 
Pledged promise of His light 
Wherewith love's work here to begin : 
Allelu'ia— El'ohim !* 

LAUDS. 

Allelu'ia — dawning day ! 

All shows in the glow of thy rosy ray 

Becoming as all should — 

Forth-forming the eternal w^ay 

As one and true and good; 

* For thought-sequence of these Divine names, see Appendix. 

U5 



Wreaths of Song. 

Conforming to thought's form self-shown 

As all there is to be, 

Trine term that is perfection's own — 

Love, law, and liberty 

To grow more like all that is He 

Who is All is-essentially : 

Allelu'ia — Je'hovah ! 



PRIME. 

Allelu'ia — rising sun! 
His act proclaim subject to none; 
Not as of less evolving more — 
Senseless imagination — 
But, as behoveth the AU-o'er, 
Or creating of naught before 
Or acting forth Creation 
Through what 'twas made potentially 
Love's way to be more than need be, 
To do more than e'er need be done 
As meet mode of the Highest One: 
Allelu'ia— El'Elion! 

U6 



Prelade. 

TERCE. 

Allelu'ia — morning breeze ! 
My spirit hears your harmonies 
As space-time's for life's melodies. 
On! birds, lambs bleating, lowing kine: 
Your life-word's service-song be mine. 
On! winged voices of the spring, 
Here humming, buzzing, chirping — 
On! tiny trumpets of the air, 
Scarce seen, scarce heard, still everywhere 
At the gates of silence, be 
Mine too your lives' self-symphony 
All day long to the living One 
Whose word here through your living done 
Tells how the Lord of life is He: 
Allelu'ia — Adon'ai ! 



SEXT. 

Allelu'ia — brightest, best 
Hour of the hours, dost self-attest 
His will's way as all-mean and rest. 
Here breathing balm of summer-bloom, 
There sleeping ocean's tidal boom, 

U7 



"Wreaths of Song. 

Self-hushing buzz of busy bees, 

Infinite whisper through the trees — 

Thine own lullaby love-song, breeze: 

Ceasing, ceasing, all so soon, 

Sights, scents and sounds of sunny noon! 

On, on — sing, all that come and go 

And rise and fall and ebb and flow — 

All-glory to the One ye show 

Forth moving all as Who dotH see 

From and unto eternity : 

Allelu'ia— El Ro'i! 



NONE. 

Allelu'ia — silent eve! 

Harmonize what I believe 

With all self-thi-iking makes me know, 

With all earth's love-formed tendings show 

As fading but to readorn, 

As dying but to be reborn, 

As melting eve for dewy morn. 

No, Nature, thy most tuneful thing 

May never to man's spirit bring 

The all-hopeful, hymnful sense 

Of thine own satisfied silence. 



Prelude. 

Things sounding all of change self-tell, 
Thy silence says: For all, 'tis well; 
All in the power of One we dwell 
Whose is all-power, but Love is He: 
Allelu'ia— El Shadd'ai ! 

VESPERS. 

Allelu'ia — holy night ! 
His way self-hymn as wholly right 
Who here through ways we may not see 
Now acts forth all in harmony 
With what was from the first to be; 
So silently, all silently. . . . 
Allelu'ia — all is well — 
Ha'el Beth'el Immanu'el : 
The One eternally the Same — 
Glory forever to His name : 
Allelu'ia— El'Olam! 

COMPLIN. 

Allelu'ia — Sion's song, 

Word of the World — on, on, on! 

All space-time's way forth made to move 

From life through light to ends of love, 

The Good proclaim the All-above; 



Wreaths of Song. 

The Right, the Might that ne'er may fail; 
The First, the One that must prevail : 

Allelu'ia, Allelu'ia!— 
Roll on, roll on, revolving spheres. 
Your rhythm's hymn my being hears ; 
On, come and go, all-rhythmic ocean; 
On, heart, life's blood flow — mystic motion, 
Motion, motion — trine pulsation! 
'Tis the concert of Creation: 

Allelu'ia, Allelu'ia, 
Allelu'ia — le'sua! 

Easter Term. 



J20 



ParacUto. 



PARACLITO. 

Veni Sancte Spiritus 

Et emitte coelitus 

Lucis Tuae radium — 
Come, Light of life — O living Fire! 
Light up my life, my soul inspire 
To sing aright Thy name's truth. Come- 

Veni Pater pauperum, 

Veni Dator munerum, 

Veni Lumen cordium! 

Spirit of soul's song, deign now be 
As in that moment's ecstasy, 
Young life's first flush of minstrelsy. 
I felt thou wert indeed to me — 

Consolator optime, 

Dulcis hospes animae, 

Dulce refrigerium ! 

J2J 



Wreaths of Song. 

Tired of labouring through Earth's night, 
Faihng of strength, failing of sight, 

life's sole all-informing Light! 

1 cry to Thee, Eternal Right — 

In labore requies, 

In aestu temperies. 

In fletu solatium! 
Come : be my spirit's word now wrought 
Wholly of Thine through sense and thought, 
Spirit of life and love and truth. 
Spirit Who art the Absolute — 

O Lux beatissima, 

Reple cordis intima 

Tuorum fidelium! 
As Thine thus make me think and feel ! 
Word me right words then to reveal 
The fullness of the mystic call 
Of all to each, of each to all — 
Al'le'lu'ia! 

Pentecoat. 



J22 



Trisagion. 



TRISAGION. 

"Holy, Holy, Holy"— 
Sweet melody, full harmony! 
I hear ye telling of the Three 
Who are the One All-holy — He, 

Source of right endeavour. 
Who lives — knows — loves essentially. 
Self-singing through eternity, 
Self-harmonising melody. 

Life — Light — Love for ever. 

O Type of thought's analysis, 

O Living Melody ! 
All-reason of truth's synthesis, 

Eternal Harmony! 
The music from mind's myriad strings 
That at emotion's moment springs 
To swell the song man's spirit sings. 

Triune, but tells of Thee. 

123 



Wreaths of Song:* 

Of Thee — Thee — Thee self-sings all this 
Life's song of power, beauty, bliss — 
Thought's self-terming synthesis ! 

I see, Lord, laws all-o'er, 
Thy order ordering all here is, 

Revealing more and more 
Of Thine eternal triune truth : 

Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, 

Dominus Deus Sabaoth! 

Holy Trinity. 



J24 



Sabaoth. 



SABAOTH. 

Sabaoth — saba'oth, powers of heaven ! 

Beings whose being as being self-given 

Of the First with the First's brightness is 
bright, 

Suns of Creation, children of Light! 

Sons of God, sons of God, stars of the morn- 
ing! 

Worlds that the Light of the World is adorn- 
ing! 

My spirit feels in it a spark of the fire 

That glows in your glory, inflames your desire. 

My spirit! — God, is it not all but of Thee? 

Not as drop from a fountain or fruit from a 
tree, 

Or rock out of mountain, or of aught made 
made-be : 

J25 



Wreaths of Songf. 

But didst speak and 'twas there, self-done of 
Thy word 

With the light of Thy face set on it — O Lord ! 

Through the light of that light this spirit 
thinks "I", 

Thence thinking forth knows Thee and know- 
ing doth sigh 

As it sighs for Thee solely, All Holy, Most 
High- 

End as Self-source of spirit-life, Who art the 
Truth 

To wills as to worlds for aye Absolute — 
El'ohe Saba'oth! 

Bevision. 



i26 



Allel Sabaoth. 



ALLEL SABAOTH. 

All Hallows Hymn. 
I. 

ANGELS. 

Hail All Holy, Holy, Holy— 
O Eternal Sovereign Trine! 

ARCHANGELS. 

First, Best, Greatest, Thou art solely 
Life All-holy— All Divine! 

t27 



Wreaths of Song. 

THRONES. 

Boundless, by Whose will all here is, 
Wills and worlds to sing- combine: 

(together.) 

Glory, honor, power e'er is 
Wholly, wholly, wholly Thine! 



II. 



DOMINATIONS. 

Lord, Right's Sovereign Self, we name Thee- 
O Most Holy Trinity! 

PRINCIPALITIES. 

Light of lights, still we proclaim Thee — 
Infinite Might's Mystery! 

POWERS. 

But for love's own adoration 
Shown enough we sing to Thee : 

J28 



Allel Sabaoth. 

(together.) 

Lord — Lord — Lord of all Creation, 
Lord Our God eternally! 

IIL 

VIRTUES. 

God All-mighty — Unbeginning 
Might here each beginning shows! 

CHERUBIM. 

E'er through ways of wisdom bringing 
All that of Thy bounty flows! 

SERAPHIM. 

Father, Teacher, Lover — 'living 

Life, Light, Love that no bound knows; 

(together.) 

God — O Good! all good first giving, 
To Thee all else all e'er owes. 

t29 



Wreaths of Song. 



FINALE. 

ALL SAINTS. 

Hail All Holy, Holy, Holy 

Lord of lords, Self-Sovereign Trine! 
Glory, honor, praise be solely 

Wholly, wholly, wholly Thine! 
Wholly Thine — Thine — Thine : 
Father, Son, and Spirit — Thine! 

Amen. 

Trinity Term, 



Note. — From the old English word "hallow," to sanctify or make holy. 
"All Hallows " primarily means all the sanctified or made-holy as 
distinguished from the absolutely Holy, hence All-holy One. "All- 
Hallows Hymn " is thus synonymous with the " Song of the Sons of 
God " in the sense of the divine saying,—" When the morning stars all 
together praised me and the Sons of God all sang for joy." In the 
sense, too, it may be noted that the Hebrew title, Allel Sabaoth, taken 
as meaning "Praise-service of the heavenly hosts," is virtually the 
same as "All Hallows Hymn." Then it may be added that while 
Creation's Paschal Acclaim— AUelu'ia! as saying "All hail to Him Who 
Isl " says in effect " Proclaim The Ab-solute (/a), The All-holy Onel" 
All Hallow's Hymn— The Trisagion— is in effect that pro-clamation. 

J 30 



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Amen* 



AMEN. 

"A'men, A'men" — true life's refrain 
To truth self-told in every place, 

Right's universal rhyme, 
Love's last harmonic note through space 

To melody of time — 
Amen, Amen! 

Amen, Amen — not as we would. 
But as wouldst Thou, Eternal Good — 
God! Father, Friend, King, Country, Home; 

All-hallowed Thy name be, Holiest One, 
And, as it is writ. Thy Kingdom come! 

Here, as on high. Thy will be done — 
Amen, Amen! 

Amen, Amen — to that word while true, 
Good wills here, rouse the right who will do 

m 



Wreaths of Songf. 

'Gainst those who would let wrong stay: 
The good Old leaves when cometh the New, 
The bad must be driven away — 
Amen, Amen! 

Closing Era. 



J52 



Conclusion. 



CONCLUSION. 

Away ! — men who would man enthrall : 
Right owns no right 'gainst the good of all. 
Come, rights of man! Right of the High 
And Holy — no, thou shalt not die 
Out of man's heart here, right-divine, 
All-righting right for me and mine! 
Derided yet — yes, and I see, 
Ah me! still worse is yet to be. 
Well, let it be — Amen! Amen, 
As it is so to be. But then. 
No matter how, no matter when, 
What should shall be, as sure as Truth 
Is He Who is The Absolute 
And He is Love: Allelu'ia — 
A'men ! 

Nenv Era. 



J33 



Wreaths of Song. 



LOGIA. 

(Prov. via. SO.) 

"Playing before Him 

Through all time" — 
Every soul self-silenced hears 

That mystery behind 
The mystic music of the spheres, 

The music of the mind. 
Then may each, song-wise, word the way 
Thought its harmonics move; 
Self-wording what to souls they say 

For faith and hope and love; 
Declaring how to all the true 
Through goodness, greatness, beauty too, 

Reveals the All-above : 

Then tells each spirit its own 
Of what the abyss calls to the abyss, 
From dying act's woe to living act's bliss, 
Proclaiming all there for aye as it is 

And beling so is to be known. 
Nor may the telling be man's alone. 

J34 



Logia. 

Only man's word ! — that which thought brings 
Self-echoes of all the truths of things 

That first and last combine — 
The poet's word ! 'Tis the World's, and gives 
The sound of all sounds here wherein lives 

The resonance divine 
Revealing thought's last treasure, 
The truth that is all pleasure; 
Of weight of things and measure 

Making rhythm, making rhyme — 
Sound and sense's sovereign grace 

For harmonies of space 

To melodies of time. 



f35 



Wreaths of Songf* 



APOLOGIA. 

"Shows thus the work of a whole year?" — 
Nay, friend, no forms of work show here: 

Only soul-solacnigs. 
I sang as men at work will sing. 
As birds at time of nest-building, 
As Nature everywhere through Spring 

Labour lightening sings. 
I only claimed the poet's word 
As who space-time thought's echoes heard 
Tlirough his own spirit self -averred 

As of Eternity : 
So sang, as of its life's accord 
To Time's truth sings Spring's gladdened bird. 

Or sounds the breeze-swept tree. 



J 36 



Envoi, 



ENVOI. 

"Good-bye" — so say 
But that we may 

Yet all meet when 
One home is known 

For all good men. 
All Hallows' own 

On high : 
If not till then, 
'Till then again- - 

Good-bye ! 

Good-bye — 
Thrice-blessed word ! 

But let it be 
Willed as first meant : 

From you for me 
Sent as it went 

From me for you — 

J37 



Wreaths of Song. 

Ad Deiim, dear friends, 
As a prayer ascends — 

Ad'dio, A' dim! 
Ce qui n'est qii'nn Bon-Soir 
A tantot, au revoir 

Dans les cieux: 

Ainsi soit-il — 
Amen! 



M^ 




J38 



ilppendix. 



139 



The following pages give little more than the substance of 
an article contributed to the Irish Ecclesiastical Record for 
July, 1900. They are put here as practically presenting a 
series of notes on the foregoing lyrical sequence. 



J40 



Appendix* 



APPENDIX. 

ALLELUIA'S THOUGHT SEQUENCE. 

I. First, as to the word's proper transcrip- 
tion: In an article contributed to the Ameri- 
can Ecclesmstical Review (June, 1899), I gave 
my reasons for retaining the traditional mode 
of transcribing it here adopted. Besides re- 
ferring to various liturgical, theological, phil- 
ological and even purely literary considera- 
tions in its favour, I showed that this tra- 
ditional form is really the only proper tran- 
scription for purposes of English literature, 
having regard to the characters we use and the 
way we pronounce them. In this connection 
I quoted a remark made by a writer in the 
Imperial Dictionary to the effect that the word 
is "improperly written with ;' in conformity 



Appendix* 

with the German and other continental lan- 
guages in which ; has the sound of y. But to 
pronounce it with the English sound of ; de- 
stroys its beauty." The writer, I noted, then 
observes that a like mistake touching the 
sound of the first letter in Jehovah has per- 
verted the true pronunciation, which was Ye- 
liovah. That, he very properly allows, must 
now be submitted to. But, he adds, in regard 
to the present word, the perversion "ought not 
to be tolerated." To which I would here 
add : the "perversion" ought not to be toler- 
ated merely because of destroying the word's 
beauty, but also, and for a reason of much 
greater consequence, because of destroying 
the spiritual significance of the word's thought- 
term or determining affix. It destroys the ef- 
fective representation which that affix in the 
original Hebrew gives of its meaning : its rep- 
resentation of the idea of Absolute Existence 
or Independent Being, of an Individual wholly 
free from the determining act of another. 
That sovereign thought of "Being-absolutely" 
no sculptured or painted form could in the 
least represent. No effort of mere sensuous 

(42 



Appendix. 

art could do so. Only a word from out of the 
mouth of man may do it ; only the divinely pro- 
vided power of the human voice uttering in- 
telligible sound. Now, the pure diphothongal, 
self -determining, forth-breathing spirit-sound 
of la or Ya admirably expresses it, in so far 
as a letter-formed or linguistic product artistic- 
ally could. J ah (which we should naturally 
pronounce dgiah) does not express the thought 
at all. With its consonantal, ha?f-hissing, 
half-grating sound, it represents quite the re- 
verse. It sensibly represents the thought of 
an agent being wholly acted by the act of 
another : quite the opposite to the thought of 
"The Absolute" or utterly Self-acting One. 
Moreover, the letter there meant to be repre- 
sented by j is the Hebrew letter yod, of which 
I showed the English equivalent to be not / but 
i, or y — as we would naturally pronounce / 
in an affix such as ia. Finally (looking mere- 
ly at the number and character of the original 
Hebrew letters) I showed that the h, so fre- 
quently of late inserted at the end as at the 
beginning of the word, being wholly redundant 
in our transcription ought not be inserted 

J 43 



Appendix. 

there.* Hence I concluded that for all writers 
who use Roman characters, but especially 
for all those of the English-speaking world, 
"Alleluia" (not Hallelujah) is the proper 
as it is admittedly the traditional Chris- 
tian transcription of the word. 

II. Those who accept this traditional 
transcription, it may be said, to be literally 
consistent ought to write laua (or la'va) in- 
stead of "Jehovah" for the Divine Name re- 
vealed to Moses : and, for the same reason, 
ought write A'ia in transcribing the word in 
Exodus (Chap, iii.) meaning "He Who Is." 
Indeed, in addition to this reason of logical 
consistency, it might well be said that la'ua 
(lava) retains the word's essentially tetra- 
grammatic form : the torm which it had in the 
Hebrew text before the Massoretes added 
their vowel-points in the ninth century; which 
it even had in the ancient Phoenician charac- 



* See in the article of the American Ecclesiastical Review, above 
referred to, my reasons for then giving d (with its strong open sound) 
as proper equivalent for the Hebrew weals aspirate in English tran- 
scription. I here say nothing about the triple '/'of the acclaiming 
verb, as that is found in every form of transcription, and I have 
treated of the subject elsewhere. 

t44 



Appendix. 

ters of that text before it came to be written 
in the square letters in which it now appears 
and alone appeared long before the time of 
the Massoretes. The otherwise correct form 
and with the very same pronunciation as 
lava, namely lahvah, gives six, therefore, so- 
far, gives two redundant letters, {h in the mid- 
dle and h at the end) and these two not at all 
needed for the correct pronunciation. laua 
(or lava) moreover keeps in evidence the 
word's connection with the "la" of the Paschal 
acclaim and the A'ia of Exodus. It may then, 
and I think ought, be adopted for scientific 
purposes (Theological or Philological) when 
writing English. Still, for purposes of gen- 
eral literature I think it right to conform to 
the custom which has made "Jehovah" a uni- 
versally accepted term of our language. But 
"la" as affix to the Paschal acclaim and hence 
the form 'Alleluia' (not Hallelujah) ought be 
insisted on for every purpose : for writing and 
speaking and singing and, above all, for think- 
ing — for thinking out the truth of the word's 
thought-term with a view to effecting that 
thought-sequence to which as a form of liturgi- 

J45 



Appendix. 

cal utterance the whole is primarily an acclaim- 
ing call. 

III. Here I should naturally like to say 
something in explanation of what I take to be 
the true liturgical meaning of the whole 
as it is presented wherever it shows 
in the Psalter, in the Apocalypse, and in the 
church's liturgies from the beginning to the 
present day. I have, however, already pub- 
lished so much on the subject that I must be 
content with referring my reader to the Arti- 
cles I contributed on various phases of it to S. 
Luke's Magazine (London, 1895) 5 ^'^^ Catho- 
lic World (New York, 1896) ; The Dublin Re- 
view, Irish Ecclesiastical Record, and Ameri- 
can Ecclesiastical Review (1897 and 1899). 
For my immediate purpose let it suffice to note 
that, preserving at once the word's radical 
sense and sound and, to some extent, even the 
mystical suggestiveness of its literal form, 
'Allelu'ia may be fairly rendered "All 
hail to Him Who Is:'' taking "All-hail" 
(Allelu') as in effect meaning "Glory in 
the highest " — ■ Gloria in excelsis, and 
taking "Who Is" ('la) in the absolute sense 

iA6 



Appendix. 

in which God said to Moses (Exodus iii, 14) 
"I Am Who Am/' and — "Thus shalt thou say 
to the children of Israel : Who Is hath sent 
me to you." 

IV. Thus viewed the word will at once 
appear as "the kind of acclamation and 
form of ovation" which, Calmet notes, uni- 
versal tradition presents it as being but "which 
mere grammarians cannot satisfactorily ex- 
plain. Wherefore the Church has left it un- 
translated in her versions of Holy Writ and 
transferred it all unchanged to the formulas 
of her liturgy." In reply to the call which 
as acclamation it thus primarily implies, 
Allelu'ia's "Thought Sequence" would clearly 
be to declare all that the mystic thought- 
term (la), which is its affix, imports, hav- 
ing regard to reason's own a priori data, 
that is, to reflecting self-thought's terms of 
perfection taken in their logical sequence or 
naturally ascending order. That would be rea- 
son's — reflecting reason's — created reason's 
own 'Allel' to 'la'. In this general sense the 
whole of the foregoing lyrical series (allel) 
may be said to be "Alleluia's Thought-Se- 

147 



Appendix. 

qucnce "consequent on the conclusion of the 
previous series, on its concluding thought. But 
formally such a sequence is the piece in Allel 
itself given as Prelude, as self-presentation 
of the Divine names. This it is as proclaim- 
ing in logico-lyrical order what The Absolute 
(la) for being so must be thought out as Ab- 
solutely being and thence said to be in relation 
to all else that may be, having regard to 
reason's own self-data, to self-thought's own 
terms of perfection. That I now proceed 
briefly to explain. ■« 

V. I first assume — what I elsewhere dia- 
lectically brought out and explained in detail* 



♦ (i) " Des jugements qu'on doit appeler synthetiques a priori" — a 
paper read at the first Paris meeting of the International Scientific 
Congress of Catholics : Compte Rendu, p. 265. (2) " Le fond de la 
question: si, oui ou non, il faut admetre des jugements qui doivent 
etre appelds synthetiques a priori" — a paper read at the Fribourg 
meeting of the same Scientific Congress. (3) " La verity de I'existence 
de Dieu en face de la question s' il y a des jugements synthetiques a 
priori " — a paper communicated to the Munich meeting of the Con- 
gress (igoo), and of which the official precis is given in the General 
Reports, Aktcn des Fiinften Internatiolen Kongresses Katholischer 
Gelehrten zu Muncken, vom 24, bis. a8 September. Herder, Munich, 
1901 ; or, see the translation of it given in All Hallows Annual, 1901, 
p. 30. 

148 



Appendix, 

— that these thought-terms of perfection in the 
order of existence are ( i ) Substance, (2) Sub- 
sistence, (3) Natural action, (4) Life, (5) 
Understanding, (6) Good-zvill or lowt and (7) 
its perfection proper, as the natural term of its 
self-tending, Everlastingness. These I hold 
are the "echoes from out the everlasting hills" 
that "every soul self-silenced" hears at the 
centre of its being. They are the notes of 
self-thought's mystic gamut : the fundamental 
data of the "music of the mind." They are ac- 
cordingly the ontological categories through 
which, as thought-terms of perfection, the Ab- 
solute should be thought of as Being-abso- 
lutely and thence, in relation to all else that 
may be, should logically be named. Now, 
first, ( I ) taking substance in its primary real 
or ontological sense, as meaning active force, 
and then taking the word creation in its first 
proper positive sense as meaning absolute caus- 
ation hence causation of the totality of a thing's 
substance, clearly the thought of being Abso- 
lute Sub-stance, of the One that is the abso- 
lutely substantial or fundamental Reality, gives 
that of God as the Good in tirst instance — The 

J49 



Appendix* 

Creator or absolutely First Cause. In the 
same direct way (2) it may be shown how 
the thought of absolutely subsisting One, or 
Self-being, by comparison with all others that 
may be, gives that of being — The Uncreated; 
while (3) that of the One absolutely acting or 
Absolute Agent, as being beyond the possi- 
bility of subjection to the act of aught else, 
gives being The Most High or The In-finite; 
so (4) that of the Absolute Life, of the One 
absolutely self-acting, gives The Su-preme — 
The Lord or All-over, the One to Whose act 
all others that may be must be subjected; so 
(5) that of Absolute Intelligence gives being 
The All-Seeing; (6) that of Absolute Will* 
gives being The All-Mighty as signifying the 
All-Power for good in second instance — The 
Good in regard to the existing, as The Creator 
signifies The Good in first instance or in regard 
to the possible: finally (7) the thought of 
Absolute as absolutely everlasting gives being 
— The Eternal: as such, The Will that cannot 
go wrong and hence is the essential Principle 



• Will in g-eneral of itself being natural tendency to universal good 
Absolute Will is essentially good-will and absolutely good will. 

J 50 



Appendix. 

of righteousness or universal rectitude for all 
others through time and for ever. 

VI. Upon these seven logically consequent 
terms it should be noticed that they are given as 
self-names, and ought consequently be taken in 
their really essential meaning; not merely 
in the verbal or mere actual sense which is so 
generally a noun's first logical supposition in 
English. The Creator, for instance, there 
means not merely the One that has created, or 
now is creating, but the One to Whom on the 
whole it belongs to create, the One that is the 
Subject or Principle of action to whose free 
will all creation possible or actual is to be at- 
tributed. In like manner there The Most 
High, or the Infinite, does not mean merely 
the One that has actually naught over, or that 
is not actually bounded, but the One that 
could not be so, that, as absolutely acting, and 
therefore on the whole utterly self-acting, could 
by no act or actuality be ever in any way 
bounded. As logically self-consequent names, 
they are thus all terms of essentiality, while 
The Absolute (Ia) is a thought-term of logi- 
cally known actuality, denoting the One there 

i5i 



Appendix. 

now in act known as Being no way in or 
acted by the act of aught else, and accordingly 
to be positively thought of as the wholly self- 
acting One by whose act all else is being nat- 
urally acted in the way that is proper thereto. 
VII. Preserving that thought of actually 
Absolute, then thinking it out through the 
principle of causation, the logical truth of our 
sequence may be directly presented, quite inde- 
pendently of the rational rapprochmcnts hith- 
erto observed. But here first it should be 
noted that to ask, as some modern writers do : 
Why must The Absolute be said to be per- 
sonal? is simple nonsense. "Being absolute 
(ens ab-solutum) as simply saying "one in act 
no wise subject to the act of another" means 
being one utterly self-acting. "The Absolute" 
thus means the One that not only is personal 
but is as purely personal as being could be and 
as pcr-fectly personal as no other being could 
possibly be. Hence even grammatically taken 
(as to genus or gender) as a denoting thought- 
term "The Absolute" means the One there that 
is pre-eminently "He." The only question 
then for dialectics in regard to the term's 

J52 



Appendix. 

thought is, as I have noted, to ask : What must 
one being so as being so — what must "The 
Absolute" as such — be successively said to be 
in se having regard to all self -thought's data or 
modes of being taken in the ascending order of 
tlieir perfections; then how in the same order 
must "He" be logically said to be in regard to 
all else that in any way may be, and how should 
He thus logically be named f Thus thinking 
we may say : — the Being now there in 
act (be there who or what else there may) 
that is no way acted by the act of another 
("Ia") for being so must be said to be in re- 
gard to all others — he ( i ) Whose it is in the 
first instance to absolutely cause or make be; 
but (2) Who cannot in any sense have been 
caused or made be; hence can (3) in no way 
be subject to the act of another; while (4) all 
others must in every way be subjected to His 
act; (5) which act itself must be that of One 
absolutely self-representing or self-knowing 
and through such self-knowledge all-knozuin'g; 
yet (6) may be in regard to all others just as 
He freely zvills or self-determines it to be; 
while (7) 'what His free will does thus self- 

J53 



Appendix. 

determine He is — albeit freely — absolutely 
self-determined to from and unto ever-lasting: 
which, as His last, for us creatures living 
time's way is naturally His life's sovereign 
mystery. These thought-terms, it will be seen, 
are precisely those of our first-formed sequence 
presenting The Absolute ( i ) as absolutely sub- 
stantial or fundamental Reality hence God in 
the sense of absolutely First Cause — The 
Creator; (2) as absolutely subsisting — The 
Uncreated; (3) as absolutely acting — The 
Most High, the Infinite or One that can have 
nought else in any way over; (4) as absolutely 
living or self-acting — The Lord, The Su- 
preme or One that must be all-over all others 
that may be ; ( 5 ) as absolutely knowing — The 
All-seeing; (6) as absolutely willing — The 
All-mighty or All-power for good to the ex- 
isting, and (7) as absolutely everlasting — 
The Eternal; as such The One Whose it is 
act-wise to determine all agents aright and for 
ever. 

VHI. But, what I desire particularly to ac- 
centuate and mainly in view of which I have 
written the foregoing is that this logically self- 

J54 



Appendix. 

formed sequence of Divine thought-terms 
gives all the Hebrew Scripture names for God 
in the exact order of each ones first appear- 
ance there. Thus we have, (i) Genesis i. i, 
El'ohim — God in the sense of the Creator; 
(2) Genesis ii. 4, Jehovah (lava) — the Un- 
created or Self-being; (3) Genesis xiv. 18, 
El'Elion — the Most High, the one having 
nought over; (4) Genesis xv. 2, Adonai — the 
Lord, the Supreme or All-over; (5) Genesis 
xvi. 13, El'Roi — the All-seeing; (6) Gene- 
sis xvii. I, El'Shaddai — the All-Mighty; (7) 
Genesis xxi. 33, El'Olam — the Eternal. 
After that there is no thought-term formally 
presented as Divine Name throughout the 
Book of Genesis, or anywhere else in Holy 
Writ till we come to the names of the Man- 
God Himself: whose first-given name, or 
rather appellation, Immanu'el (God with us) 
is formed from 'El the primitive of the first of 
the above series {El'ohim) ; while His second, 
lesua, His name proper (Je'sus), is formed 
from 'la' the primitive of the second of the 
series, of la'va (Je'hovah). This remarkable, 
and, as far as I know, hitherto unnoticed cor- 

\55 



Appendix. 



respondence of the sequence of Divine names 
in the order of experience, reason, and writ- 
ten revelation, the reader can easily verify and 
with the indications I have given think out 
for himself. The following" table will serve 
to show at a glance the triple correspondence 
it reveals: 

A llelu'ta! 
(All-hail to '■'Him Who Is "—Absolute Existence— The Absolute.) 



Absolute Substance. ... 
Absolute Subsistence.. . 

Absolute Act 

Absolute Life 

Absolute Understandinc 
Absolute Good-Will . . .'^ 
Absolutely Everlasting. 



The Creator . . . . 

The Uncreated.. 
The Most High . 
The Suprejne. . . . 
T he All-seeing., 
T he All-mighty. 
The Eternal . . . . 



Elohini. 
Jehovah. 
EV Elioti. 
Adonai. 
El Ro'i, 
El Shaddai. 
ErOlam. 



IX. "Ha'el" is sometimes given as an- 
other Divine name. As a matter of fact it is 
found in Genesis soon after EVOlam and is 
there, as often afterwards in Holy Writ, em- 
ployed to designate the true God. It is, how- 
ever, really nothing more than a grammatical 
formation from the contracted Hebrew definite 
p.rticle Hal (or 'Al^) and 'El the root or rather 

I * And rather "Al," as, setting aside the superadded Massorete 
punctuation, there are only two letters in the word. Here, however, 
as in other places where there is no special objection to doing so, I 
conform to modern English transcription. 

t56 



Appendix. 

the fundamental form of Erohim. There 
being- no article in Latin, S. Jerome could give 
no equivalent to Hal, and so, in the Vulgate, 
Ha'El is simply translated Deus, just as is 
'Elohim. Our English versions in conse- 
quence commonly translate it "God." When 
by itself it might be rendered "the true God" 
or "the one God" — taking the term "El" as 
grammatically meaning "Deity" in general. 
"The God" would be its natural rendering 
when with another word in the genitive, for 
instance Beth'el. That is the way of its first 
appearance: "I am Ha 'El Bethel" (Tr. "The 
God of Beth'el"*) where thou didst anoint 
the stone and make a vow to me." Genesis 
xxxi. 13. First showing in this place after the 
aforesaid seven divine names : Ha'El (A' El) 
may be taken for synthetic thought-term 
of them all. Here recalling the traditional 
sense of "la" ,"Allelu'ia" as form of acclamation 
may even in this way be understood as saying : 
"Proclaim the actually Absolute {la) the rcal- 



• The word ^cZ/zV/ itself meaning House of God; the name pre- 
viously given by Jacob to the place of his Messianic vision, as explained 
in the text. 

J57 



Appendix. 

ly Universal Good ('El) — the all-good for all 
and always : Do minus Deus Sahaoth! 

X. Sabaoth (Hebrew Tsebaoth) of itself 
means power's — properly, perhaps, univer- 
sal powers — in action, and in English is not 
improperly rendered "hosts." The Latin Vul- 
gate retains it untranslated; and it is so pre- 
sented, no doubt for greater solemnity, in the 
Preface of the Mass and the daily Te Deum 
of the Office in the form I have just given. 
Such expressions therefore as Elohim Sabaoth, 
Jehovah Sabaoth, or Jehovah Elohim Sabaoth 
— Lord God of hosts — are merely emotional 
ways of uttering Divine names and, as being 
^o, naturally are favorite forms of expression 
with the Prophets and other more or less 
emotional sacred writers. Sabaoth is never 
used in this way throughout the Pentateuch. 
It came to be so used as an expression of the 
Hebrew race's realization of the most glorious 
fact of its history, that of being the chosen 
people of God, marching through the ages as 
"an army in battle array" along with the 
"powers of heaven," marshalled and led by the 
'^'Tost High Himself. Meaning "hosts in ac- 

158 



Appendix* 

tion," when joined with Jehovah or Elohim, 
it forms the most thriUing as making the most 
actual of all divine appellations; denoting The 
First, the Self-existent, the Power of powers 
as here and now determining Creation's uni- 
versal agents for good in the way that is prop- 
er for the special nature and present duty of 
each one in the work of the Universe. But, 
even as thus joined to Jehovah or Elohim, 
Sabaoth makes no new name, gives no new 
title. It but recalls an actual fact, what the 
Absolute deigns to be doing, not what as Ab- 
solute He must l)e said to be. The appella- 
tion it goes to form is so thrilling precisely for 
thus recalling what is in no sense essential ; 
what but for his own free act the Absolute 
could not be called. For, while as Absolute 
He must be (i) Elohim, (2) Jehovah, 
(3) El 'Elion, (4) Adonai, (5) El Shad- 
dai, (6) El Ro'i and (7) 'El 'Olam— 
the Eternal One — He need not be heading 
"hosts" of free agents in action, since 
absolutely speaking there need never be any 
"Agent" or "Power" existing other than the 
One that is He. That He has deigned to have 

J59 



Appendix* 

others existing, to have given himself "hosts" 
of devoted followers and is now leading them 
on through the ages by ways of universal right- 
eousness to ends of universal good — that is the 
all-thrilling thought, the actual truth of truths 
for those who glory in the faith of being so 
led. That therefore is the sense and spirit of 
the Church militant's daily singing: Sanctus, 
Sanctns, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth! 

XL While the Trisagion is thus the Allel or 
Service-song of the Sabaoth, as the Anthem of 
the Kingdom of Heaven, Alleluia is its univer- 
sal acclaim. Precisely in this relation, as Uni- 
versal "Invitatory" to the "Song of the Sons 
of God," it is that "kind of acclamation and 
form of oration" which universal tradition pre- 
sents it as being. Thus in effect it shows 
throughout the Psalter* ; thus in the Apoca- 
lypsef ; thus in the early liturgiest of the Chris- 
tian Church of the East and West ; and thus as I 

* Especially through the psalms of the Paschal AIM. 

t " I heard as It were the voices of many multitudes in heaven saying 
Alleluia! Salvation and glory and power to our God, for /rzie ant/ 
righteous are His judgments.'" Apoc. xix. 

% See earliest liturgies of which we have written record; notably 
those known as the liturgies of S. Mark, S. James, and S. Chrysostomt 
in which the Paschal Acclaim is joined to the Trisagion in the way of 
Invitatory acclamation. 

J 60 



Appendix. 

brought out at length elsewhere* it was taken 
up and lised by the faithful of all classes up to 
and through the middle ages : always as accla- 
mation voicing the joyous service of the Uni- 
verse as wording the very sense of the rhythm 
of things. So through all ways of things it 
was held to be right that men of good-will 
should hear it. So they heard it; not alone 
through the Church's words, through her seven 
canonical hours of Divine service, as I else- 
where noted, but also, I would here note, 
through the ceaseless word of their own lives 
and that of this mysterious world of sense 
through which human life is being borne. 
They heard it through the rhythmic throbbing 
of their hearts and all the sounds and form.s 
and phases of nature's energizing around them. 
They heard it in the morning chorus of the 
birds, and the other cheery voices of earth's 
awakening life. It was for them the word of 
the rising sun, of the wind through the trees, 
of rivers on their way to the sea, and of the 

* See " Alleluia's Traditional Import." in the Easter number of the 
Catholic Worlds 1897; "Alleluia's Story," in the Dublin Review^ March. 
1898; "Alleluia as Christian Acclamation," in the American Ecclesi- 
astical Review, 1898; and articles on the " Alleluiatic Hymn of S. 
Caramain Fota (Irish saint of the seventh century), in the Irish Eccle- 
siastical Record, May, 1898. 



Appendix, 

many-voiced sea itself. "Allelu'ia" was to 
them literally what the waves are saying all 
day long — what all things on earth are saying 
"from the rising of the sun to the going down 
thereof." Then, "when the sun went down 
and the stars came out far over the summer 
sea" and the heavens were "telling the glory of 
God," would this mystic song be to those 
spiritual-minded men what the planets and the 
constellations as they shine are singing in 
harmony with " the choirs on high" — coelcstes 
chori qui cantant in altum. So sang Blessed 
Notker a thousand years ago in Europe's then 
chief school of sacred music and song, in the 
monastery founded two hundred years before 
by the Irish foreign Missioner St. Gall. So, 
after all these years, with the self-same faith as 
his, while we look on what Blessed Notker 
looked on, through Night's holy silence may 
our spirits as his did hear — 
The planets glittering on their heavenly way 
The shining constellations joining say: 
Allelu'ia !* 

* See Dr. Neale's fine rhythmic rendering of Blessed Notker's Se- 
quence. 

(62 



